Today's Paper
» NATIONAL
» NEW DELHI

IGNOU comes up with a new programme for cooperative banks’ officials

The School of Law at Indira Gandhi National Open University in New Delhi started a four-day residential training programme for officials of different cooperative banks on its campus earlier this week.

The focus of the training programme mainly is on the legal aspects of recovery management and the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SRFAESI) Act, 2002. Twenty senior executives from urban cooperative banks across the country are undergoing training at the session.

Various issues relating to machinery available for recovery of loans under various laws for urban cooperative banks, legal impediments for enforcing the SRFAESI Act, and important provisions of the SRFAESI Act would be discussed. The programme is being conducted in collaboration with the National Federation of Cooperative Urban Banks and Credit Societies Ltd.

Inaugurating the programme, IGNOU Pro-Vice Chancellor Om Prakash Mishra said it was important to empower bank officials with inputs of knowledge and training in matters relating to loan recovery from people in rural areas, the main target audience of the cooperative banks. “In the past, the Supreme Court has observed that bank loan recovery agents must be given training. We thought that this is an area we should explore to work. There is a difference between cooperative banks and commercial banks. The cooperative banks enjoy one basic advantage: they are closer to people than the commercial banks. They know their people,” observed Prof. Mishra.

“Indeed, the cooperative banks were created to help farmers. Without loans, cooperative banks cannot exist. At the same time, without recovery of the loaned amounts and rotating them for further loans, the cooperative banks can’t function. Therefore, it is necessary to train the recovery officials,” he said.

The Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, held an international business plan competition, “Conquest 2009”, on its campus this past weekend.

The team from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, bagged the top honours of Rs. 1 lakh, while the second prize of Rs. 50,000 was shared by two teams, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, and a joint team of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. IIT-Roorkee presented a plan that proposed international financial reporting standards implementation and maintenance services to domestic and overseas markets. IP University proposed an organic model for waste management involving school children while the joint team of IIM-Bangalore and ISB-Hyderabad showcased a “one-stop-shop” connecting non-profit organisations in the US to its potential donors.

The contest received over 200 entries from various countries including Pakistan, China, France, Germany, the US, Sri Lanka and Mozambique, said an official release.

Maharshi Dayanand University has issued an admission notice for a post-graduate degree in retail management for this academic year.

The course details and application forms are available on www.mdurohtak.com. Interested students can apply up to August 19.

Apeejay School of Management signed a memorandum of understanding with Yunnan University of Finance and Economics and Lincang Teachers’ College for academic collaboration this past week.

Both the institutions are based in the Yunnan province of the People’s Republic of China.

The MoU is aimed at fostering academic collaboration in multidisciplinary research, faculty exchange and student exchange over the next three years.